If Water was Butterbeer
by Fuzio the roaming gnome
Summary: CHAPTER 8 FINALLY UP! I assure you this is no ordinary marauder story! it deals with growing up, relationships that are romatic, rival, and friendly alike, READ AND REVIEW!
1. James\' first ride

CHAPTER 1

From a web of silk, a small spider ventured her way out onto a nearby surface. Her children were hungry and food was scarce this time of year. If she was lucky, she'd find a fly nest and bring home larvae. By now she was at the edge of the surface when she looked up-

"Eew, I hate spiders!" a young boy just squashed the spider with a book.

"Wormtail! Why'd ya have to be a wimp? You see, a REAL man would've just picked it up and _then_ killed it. With their fingers!" a tall, messy-haired boy picked up the book, "besides, I was reading that."

"Temper James, temper." Another boy that sat next to James said.

James just yawned. "Anything you say _mother_." He stood up, "Well mates, I'll turn in for the day. G'night." He headed upstairs to the boy's dormitory.

It was James Potter's fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And even in November exciting things have already happened. But he wasn't going to share that information with just anybody.

He walked to the trunk at the end of his bed to begin changing into his bed cloths. While putting on his pants, he lost his balance and was forced to step on the ground with his left foot, hard. James felt a sharp pain at the bottom of his foot. Subconsciously he shrieked from the pain. Stepping off of it, he sat down on his bed. His mind automatically began thinking of the worst and he was shure he had a deep gash and blood was pouring out of his foot. To his surprise, there was just a red colored dent in his skin.

He looked down to see what hit him and he saw a little rock, no bigger than the upper segment of his thumb. The rock had hundreds of shiny, flat surfaces all colored gold. James picked up the rock and smiled at it fondly. He remembered he father gave him that rock as a keepsake. When he was five his dad told him is had magic beyond belief and wouldn't give it to him until he was old enough to handle it's power.

James Potter looked up at the giant, red train for the first time. Being only 5" it looked as tall as a giant. Although he had never seen a giant before, he could easily imagine the height.

"James! James! Slow down!" he heard his mother's voice in the background. "James Potter! You shouldn't be running off like that! Now look at yourself. Your hair is messed up and your collar's uneven. See what happens when you run like that?"

His mother went on telling him all the things that were wrong with his appearance, but he wasn't paying attention. He was paying more attention to the people around him. He was praying that they didn't notice his mother fussing over him like this, that was the last thing he wanted, his first year at Hogwarts being known as the "mama's boy" or, at least, that's what his brother, Adam, would tell every one if they didn't see it already.

His brother, like all older brothers were, could be cruel to him at times. And last night Adam told him what Hogwarts would be like. He told him that every year the 7th years played horrible pranks and would go out of their ways to humiliate first years. And that peeves the poltergeist would embarrass you as well. And his brother went on telling him that the first year would be miserable.

Frankly, after hearing these things, he was terrified. Panic began to grow inside him and he pushed his mother away after thirty seconds of his mind thinking about this.

"Marie, calm down. If you haven't noticed already, his hair is always messy, it's genetic, so stop trying to fix it. Besides, you putting him through this is has to be torture!" his father, Floyd, had just caught up with the two just in time to save him from his mother's hopeless attempts to fix his hair.

James' mother stormed off in protest and waited by the entrance to platform 9 ¾. Floyd knelt down to be at the same level with his son. He was at least 6'5 so even kneeling down, he would still be taller. "James, do remember what I told you last night?"

"Uh, go to bed?" James looked up as if trying to remember.

His father chuckled, "Yes, but I also told you that the train ride to Hogwarts this year would establish your standing with the people you meet. So remember, have fun, be nice and don't get caught!" he stood up and winked at his son.

Hearing his father say this made James smile uncontrollably. He turned around and felt a small bulge in his pocket. He reached in and found the little gold colored rock that his father kept. Floyd told him that he found it while in California, America's most magically bizarre state. And although he didn't know what a state was, he figured that it would have to be really bizarre to be AMERICA's most bizarre state.

James' thoughts were interrupted by his brother hitting him in the head. "C'mmon, we'll be late. Don't grab you bags, the school will take care of that." Adam walked on forcing his brother to run to catch up.

On the train, Adam warned his brother that if he ever talked to him this year, he'd be sorry. So they went their separate ways. James looked from compartment to compartment looking for some other first years or even better, an empty compartment.

To his disappointment, there were no empty compartment available, but he did find one with a boy who looked his age. The boy looked tired, sick, and grey. Bags under his eyes and some grey hares made him look like he'd cought some sort of flu. But being no more compartments, he knocked on the door frame.

"Excuse me, can I sit with you? I mean, you don't have to, but you look alright, sort of." James mentally punished himself for the words he chose. It made him sound like some sort of wimp or something.

But the boy's face brightened up, his pale blue eyes sparkled and a smile came over him. "Yes! Please, do come in! I'm so glad that you're here, I was afraid that I would sit alone the whole time! Sit down."

"Cool, thank you. I'm James, James Potter, are you a first year too?" He again mentally scolded himself because of the words he chose.

"Hello James. Yeah, I'm a first year, my name's Remus Lupin."

"Glad to meet you, Remus."

And for the next half hour or so, they chatted about various things: Family, Quiddish, etc. James thought that he'd found a new friend.


	2. Black Sorting

Down toward the front of the train, a tall, black haired girl walked with her little brother to the "Slytherin Compartment" this girl and her relatives assumed that everyone should know that the Black, Malfoy, Snape, and other Slytherin children sat in there and it was an insult to think otherwise. The two sat down with other black haired children, a few blondes, and two unusually big third years by the names of Crabbe and Goyle.

While the girl conversed with her friends, the young boy sat in the corner closets to the door not talking to anyone.

"So," someone by the name of Lucious Malfoy turned his attention to the boy in the corner, "this is Sirius Black? So Sirius, is it true that you love Muggles? Mudbloods? Or even Halfbreeds?" he began to laugh.

"I have to say they're a shit load better than you." Sirius said coolly, without even looking up.

Lucius threw up his hand and hit Sirius across the face. "You should show more respect to someone who really sees what is wrong with those … _things_."

Sirius felt anger and frustration growing inside him and struggled not to have an outbreak. With his voice quivering he said quietly, "You can't see anything 'cause your head's shoved too far up your arse."

"_What_ did you say?" Lucius said loudly. At his point, everyone in the compartment was watching, Crabbe and Goyle began flexing their muscles to look intimidating.

"I said," Sirius looked up, "that you can't see anything 'cause your head's shoved too far up your arse!"

Sirius knew he'd gone too far by saying this. Before either Crabbe or Goyle could grab him, he dashed out the compartment door.

He ran down the corridors looking for a compartment. To his luck, he found a door ajar and ran in.

He closed the door behind him and sat down trying to catch his breath. Then he opened the door again to look for Lucius and the others.

"Uh, hello?" James Potter looked confused. "Who are you?"

Sirius reached his hand over while the door was closed. "Sirius."

"Hello Sirius." Remus Lupin said, "Might I ask what you're doing?"

"Running" Sirius again peered out the door.

"From?"

"Slytherins"

"Why?"

"They Hate me." Hate felt like it called for a capitol H, or at least, that's what James thought.

"Why?" James finished. He soon became silent seeing the expression on Sirius' face. "Alright, so does Sirius have a last name?"

Sirius suddenly looked angry, "You don't really want to know."

"Yes we do. Come now, it can't be that bad!" James tried to look cheerful.

"Alright then, my name is Sirius Black."

After hearing this, both Remus and James looked surprised. Remus let out a slight "oh" and James' mouth was hanging open.

"See what I mean." Sirius looked disappointed, feeling that he was no longer wanted made him get up and begin to walk away. He reached for the door but stopped from hearing James' voice:

"Well then, if Slytherin hates you, we like you!"

Sirius turned around and smiled, "Really? Well then, now we all know that I'm not evil, who are you two?"

"Remus Lupin and-"

"Potter, James Potter." James interrupted Remus.

Remus automatically was suspicious of Sirius. He was a BLACK, and Remus hadn't heard of any Black that didn't hate his kind. Over and over again he thought of that night when he was seven. He remembered running frantically from the monster, he remembered the white, hot pain shoot through his leg. He remembered waking up in St. Mungos Hospital and he remembered his father's face when he realized what had happened to his son. His family moved away from his home and away from his friends. His family use to laugh a lot, but after, there was hardly any. And all fun that took place, was when the rest of his family thought he was out of the room or asleep. And until twenty minuets ago, he hadn't had a friend or even laughed since he was seven.

Of course there was Martha, the healer at the hospital that looked after him before, during, and after his transformations. She was young, pretty, and so sweet to him. And she was the one that sent a letter to the Headmaster Abbot, the previous headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But when Professor Dumbledore became headmaster, everything changed. They were able to find a way to help him monthly with his problems, and he would still be able to go to school. But regardless of all the help he got from the school, he was reminded everyday of what he actually was:

A werewolf.

Around ten hours later, the three arrived at Hogwarts where they met Professor McGonagall the transfiguration teacher.

"Welcome first years! I am Professor McGonagall, your transfiguration teacher. Within the next few moments, you all will be at the front of the dining hall waiting to be sorted. You will listen to it's song and wait for your name to be called. Then once it is called-"

"Wow, my brother didn't tell me her speech would be this long. What house do ya think you'll get?" James nudged Sirius and Remus.

"I don't really know, I'm thinking I'll probably get Ravenclaw, or maybe Hufflepuff. It all depends, I guess. You?" Remus shrugged. He reconedwasn't brave enough to be in Gryffindor, and was too nice to be in Slytherin. So Ravencalw and Hufflepuff were the only two choices.

"Gryffindor, definitely." James said with full confidence, "What about you, Sirius?"

"I don't know. If worst comes to worst, I might get in Slytherin, but I'm hoping for Gryffindor. Hell, I'll even take Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. But NOT Slytherin."Sirius said the last sentence loudly which caused McGonagall to stop talking and everyone to turn around to look at him, which made his head feel compressed and he felt his cheeks turned red with embarassment, "Sorry" McGonagall began reading again.

In the Dining Hall, all the first years huddled in a group in front of all otherstudents,awaiting their fait. One by one they were called:

"Adell, Victoria"

"_**GRIFFENDOR!**_"

Over and over Sirius cursed his last name for starting with a B.

"Bacca, Alena"

"**_SLYTHERIN!_**"

Why couldn't his last name be another color, like White?

"Blake, Robert"

"**_HUFFLEPUFF!_**"

White starts with a W!

"Black, Sirius"

Sirius nervously stepped up. The Sorting Hat was placed on his head and instantly he heard a whisper in his ear:

**_Mr. Black. Hmm, your quite different from the others. Yesssss, very different indeed. But you definitely dohave Slytherin qualities..._**

_No, not Slytherin… I'm not like them… I'm not like them..._

**_Oh, but you are! In more ways than you think. You have the temper of a Black, and you're quick to judge, like a Black; _**

_I'm not like them… I don't belong there… I don't! _

**_Very well, if you believe that then I must put you in GRYFFINDOR!_**

Sirius leaped with joy and ran to the Gryffindor table.

Instead of cheering, everyone in the room stopped. It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. There had never been a Black in Gryffindor before. Occasionally one made their way into Ravenclaw, but their family would exclaim that the only reason was that they read too much. But being in Gryffindor was a whole different thing. Sirius looked at the Gryffindor table, then Slytherin. And eventually, he heard someone clapping. His eyes shot over at the Ravenclaw, he realized the one who was clapping was his older cousin, Andromeda. She was like him, hated by Slytherin for her beliefs about _impure-blood_. Following her lead, everyone but Slytherin clapped for him. They figured that anyone who made it into Gryffindor couldn't be _all_ bad.

Sirius was so happy he could hardly contain himself,the only thing to do wasto go tothe table to sit down.

_**Consider yourself warned…**_

Remus began to quiver with anxiety next to James, who stood tall and waited to be accepted into Gryffindor.

"Labbs, Stephanie"

"**_RAVENCLAW!_**"

Professor McGonagall paused, gulped and read the next name.

"Lupin, Remus"

At this point all the teachers sat up in their seats. Remus could tell that professor Dumbledore had his fingers crossed. He looked at the Headmaster briefly, then sat down on the Sorting Stool. He felt the heavy, old material touch his head, then fall over his eyes.

Dumbledore looked at him anxiously. To tell the truth, he had no idea what house would be best for the boy. What if someone found out? What if someone who found out told? The poor boy would become the social outcast, his life ruined.

After a few silent seconds, the had yelled out a word that brought hope and worry to Professor Dumbledore: Gryffindor.

Remus was delighted. He sat up and ran as fast as he could to the Gryffindor table, sitting next to Sirius.

Finally, McGonagall came to the P's

"Promonski, Robyn"

"**_HUFFLEPUFF!_**"

"Pettigrew, Peter"

Peter Pettigrew stepped up. He was slightly overweight, clumsy, awkward, and he had an unusual resemblance to a mouse. His front teeth were projected outward which just helped his rodent-like appearance. The had sat on his head for around five seconds, then with a sigh from the hat, he heard

"**_GRYFFINDOR!_**"

"Potter, James"

Finally James herd his name called. He sat down on the stool and before the hat made full contact with his head:

"**_GRYFFINDOR!_**"

James reached into his pocket again and felt the little gold rock. Obviousally, the rock from California had some kind of power.


	3. Peter Pettigrew

Hey, this is really quick: Thanks so much for the great reviews! Especially the advice. Your right, I need to describe more. I hope this chapter is better! Tell me if it's not! 

(the events in the chapter suck, but I describe much more!)

CHAPTER 3

It was mid-October and by now Sirius, James and Remus had become accustom to Hogwarts life. Fall was the natural favorite season of most students, especially for Sirius.

He loved to look outside, watch the trees, animals, and because it was colder now, people weren't there to ruin his view. His favorite thing was to watch animals gathering food for the winter. At the moment, he had his eye on a little grey squirrel. It would climb down a tall, dark oak, check if the coast was clear, and then run like mad to seeds and nuts that fell on the ground. Once it grabbed the item, it would run up the tree again into the shelter of the thick, dry leaves.

Except for the evergreens, all trees he saw had their leaves turn to brilliant shades of orange, brown, and yellow. And at the slightest disturbance, those leaves would plummet to the ground creating a colorful ring around the base of the tree.

"Mr. Black."

Sirius snapped out of his trance. Professor Hollingsworth, the History of Magic teacher, took her wand and forcefully slapped his hand. Her thin, pale face looked annoyed and frustrated, because for the past half hour, she was enthusiastically explaining the cruel measures Muggles would take to rid their towns of magic folk. And for Sirius Black to ignore her like this, she instantly considered it a personal insult. She peered down at the student, "Tell me what I was just talking about?"

Her tall, petite body, tightly pulled back hair, and the positioning of her eyebrows made Professor Hollingsworth constantly look angry. This time, however, she made a special effort to look even more angry than normal.

"Uh," Sirius was thrown off by her appearance. "I, uh-I really don't know." He felt obligated to be honest with her. Standing over him as she did made her look like ten feet of a furious woman. (Although she was only around five and a half feet tall) Frankly, this frightened Sirius some.

Regardless of her fury, the Professor just gave him a warning. To her knowledge, he hadn't done this before and she always believed in second chances. "Do that again and you'll have a detention." She turned and walked back to the front of the class.

Although his confrontation with the professor was only a few minuets, Sirius felt as if it was a few hours. He felt his face turn red with embarrassment. He crossed his arms and sunk into his chair. He felt as if every one was watching him; laughing and judging him. Oh, how he wished he could become invisible; Remus could probably find a potion or spell for that…

After class, the embarrassment began to vanish. It was lunch now, he was thankful that he didn't have to endure another class for at least the next hour.

"Hey, Sirius? What were you looking at anyways?" James, one of his two best friends, asked.

Sirius didn't want anybody to know that he was the nature loving type, not even James. "I thought I saw something in the Forbidden Forest, that's all."

"Really? What do you think it was?" Remus, his other best friend, looked intrigued. Remus was much different than Sirius and James. He wasn't loud, outgoing, or nearly as playful as the other two. He also loved reading, a trait his other two friends never believed they would ever acquire. The one trait they all had in common though, was they were all exceptionally talented with their wands.

This trait allowed them to do well in Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts (a favorite of James and Sirius)

The three were walking down a corridor on the second floor when they heard a shriek of some sort coming from around an upcoming corner. Following James' lead, they went to investigate the noise.

They saw Lucious Malfoy, and Sirius' cousin, Narcissa with their wands out pointing at a small, first year boy. This boy was recognized as Peter Pettigrew, a fellow Gryffindor.

"Narcissa, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Sirius asked in a very blunt manner.

"Why should it concern you?" Narcissa glared at her cousin. Peter Pettigrew gave a quick whimper; Narcissa hit him across the face.

"He just so happens to be a Gryffindor, which gives us a legitimate reason to be concerned." Remus said matter-of-factly

"Really? Lucious, darling, what do you think?" Narcissa looked at him fondly. To the best of Sirius' knowledge, Narcissa and Lucious Malfoy were an item, which made Sirius sick.

"That just gives us the perfect reason to have fun with him." Lucious smirked.

"My thought exactly!" Narcissa raised her wand, about to jinx the frightened Peter Pettigrew. Before she was able to complete the first word of the jinx, however, James knocked her wand out of her hand. Narcissa looked shocked. Since when does a first year know how to do that! She looked a Lucious; he too, had his wand knocked from him.

Sirius smiled widely, his wand was pointed straight at his cousin. "You now have a choice, my dear cousin: either peacefully leave, or have us jinx you away. Either way is fine with me!"

"I recommend the second choice. That's more fun for us!" James too, had his wand pointed.

Realizing they couldn't win, the two Slytherin students picked up their wands and walked away.

"That's it?" Sirius looked disappointed, "I was just having fun! Wanna go after them?" He smiled at James.

"Yeah! It'll be fu-"

"NO!" Remus interrupted James. "We'll be just as bad as them! It's not right anyways; and what about Peter?" Remus' attention turned to the boy huddling in the corner. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

Peter's rat-like face was pail. He looked at Remus and felt relif flood throughout his body. What if they didn't come? Peter didn't want to think of it, all that matters is they DID come. "I-I'm ok, I guess. They didn't jinx me." He stuttered a little, he reckoned his body didn't do well with adrenalin.

"That's good. You need any help?" Remus watched the clumsy little boy try to get to his feet.

"N-No, that's ok, thinks." Peter didn't want those three to think he needed complete help, he wanted to prove to them he could at least get off the ground. But his efforts had no results except him falling on his large backside again.

Remus laughed and smiled warmly, "Here," He offered his hand. Peter grabbed it and tried to pull himself up. But instead of rising, he pulled Remus down.

James and Sirius were talking about the event that just took place. They both herd Remus being pulled down. Being the immature, eleven year old boys they were, they had to laugh hysterically.

Peter just felt worse. He felt a sensation behind his eyes and nose that made him feel like he would cry at any given moment. "W-W-Why are y-you guys laughing?" he felt his voice quiver. His eyes turned red and tears began to fall down his cheeks. His large face was buried in his meaty hands.

James and Sirius instantly stopped laughing. Not only was this Peter boy crying, people were passing through the corridor; including other teachers. To their luck, no one noticed… except another Gryffindor girl, being closely followed by her friends.

She looked at Peter, then looked at the two boys. With out saying anything, her friends went to Peter trying to calm him down. He seemed to like the attention. But as for the girl, she walked over to James and Sirius.

James new who she was, Lilly Evans, another first year; until now, though, he never really looked at her. She had some what frizzy red hair that sat on top of a freckled face; he thought she had unusually good features: a proportionate nose, and thank Merlyn she didn't try to make her lips look bigger, like most first year girls did; they thought it made them look older, but it really didn't. What he noticed first out of all these was her eyes. They were an intense green, not a solid color, but layered with different shades ranging from light to forest green. For the next seven years, that was all he looked at and nothing else.

She didn't look pleasant though, she looked disappointed, but not only disappointed, she looked like she really didn't want to be talking to them. "Did you do this?" she pointed to Peter. She didn't wait for an answer, "Why? Wait, no, don't tell me. You two should be ashamed of yourselves! You are Gryffindors, aren't you? You should have more pride than this! Making another boy cry? You make me sick!" she walked away towards Peter.

Sirius and James didn't really know what to say. James tried to say something, but all that came out was 'Bu-'. He left his mouth open, staring at the scene that lay before him: Peter still crying, about five girls crowding around him, (he seemed to like the attention) and Remus being yelled at by Lilly Evans.

Sirius gulped, but then laughed to himself at seeing James' mouth hang open, he soon closed it for his friend.

Later that night in the Gryffindor Common Room, Remus, James, and Sirius were up late doing homework (it was actually just James and Sirius doing homework, Remus was already done)

"Hey, Sirius? Do you think that Evans girl hates me now?" James looked worried.

"Of course she does!" Sirius said playfully.

"No! I'm serious! Do you think she hates me?" James tossed a quill at Sirius.

"If you were serious, then you'd be me! Remember?"

"Sirius, just answer the question." Remus said without even looking up from his book.

"Heh, but yeah, James, she does hate you." He couldn't help but smirk.

"Fine, be that way." James looked disappointed.

"H-hey, guys?"

James and Sirius both snapped their heads around to look at Peter Pettigrew.

"What d' you want?" James sounded harsh.

"I-I just wanted to apologize for earlier, th-that's all." Peter looked at the ground.

"You know something James? I don't think I've ever seen any one cry like that since I was seven!" at Sirius saying this, both James and Sirius started to laugh hysterically.

"Sirius! James! Shut up, can't you see that he's really sorry? Look at him." Remus pointed to Peter. He looked like he would cry again, if it wasn't for Remus' interference. "Now, what do you say?"

"Sorry." James and Sirius looked dull.

Ever since, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were in-separable.


	4. Werewolf?

Hey, sorry it took so long to update, I've been sick, so, no time to write 'till now.

CHAPTER 4

James Potter stood up from sitting on the chest at the foot of his bed. Lazily, he threw his little rock in the air and caught it again then headed down to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, guys, look what I found." He made his way down the stairs and to the table his friends were sitting at.

"What is it?" Remus Lupin took off his glasses to get a better look.

James smiled fondly at the rock. "My dad gave it to me before I went on the Express for the first time. He told me when I was a kid that it was a magic rock. He said he got it in a place called California, thats some place on the opposite side of America or something.  
"Where 'the weird of the weird go to live. There is unusual things there my boy' dad'd tell me, 'never go there with out someone with you. I almost died there once.'" James laughed out loud, "I always figured that if it's in America, it has to be unusual."

"You know, I have a cousin there that I visited once." Sirius Black said "I went to this place called San Francisco." he shuddered in a fake manner. "NEVER, may I repeat, NEVER go into the magic part of Pier 39 ½!" (A.N. there really is a pier 39 ½ … seriously!)

A little boy called Peter Pettigrew looked nervous, "What's in there?"

Sirius put the back of his hand to his forehead and dramatically turned his head away. "It is too painful to tell." he looked back and smirked, "Let me just say that I'm glad I can still urinate properly..."

"AWW… Padfoot! That's disgusting! Did you really have to tell us that?" Remus closed his eyes tightly; he looked as if he would vomit. Hedid turnand see that Peter looked scared, "Don't worry, Peter. He was only pulling your leg. WEREN'T you, Sirius."

"Yes. Yes I was moony! Hey, prongs? Lemme see that." Sirius motioned towards the rock.

"This? Sure." James tossed the golden object to his long haired friend.

"I remember this… you threw it at my head. Damn, I still have the scar." Sirius rubbed the side of his head.

"When did I do that? I would _never_ throw _anything_ at you…ever! How could you say that?" James looked at Sirius in fake disgust.

"I can't believe you don't remember! We were in our second year! You got mad at me for some reason and threw _this_ at my head!" Sirius thrust out his hand holding the rock.

"Oh yeah, I remember that. That was the year we began to do what we do best." Remus laughed. "And by now, every one knows what _that _is!" Remus couldn't believe he was talking casually about his friend's annoying habit of pulling pranks on people. Although, he did rather enjoy seeing Servious Snape hanging by his ankles wearing a dress…

It was now the first day of school for James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. All four of them had changed some over the summer. Their voices were deeper, they were all taller, (especially Sirius) and all except Peter were beginning to gain their awkward, skinny, clumsy, teenage bodies. Peter on the other hand, still had his short, fat body that his parent's cursed him with by over feeding him… but that was of no importance to anyone else.

Also, over the summer, the four twelve year olds began to take interest in girls. It appeared that something inside their subconscious suddenly woke up and realized there was a significant difference between people of the male and female gender, and they should like it. James took special interest in a girl by the name of Lilly Evans, whom must have sworn her hatred of James a hundred times last year.

Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew had both their eyes on a little Ravenclaw second year. She was a short blonde that kept to herself for the most part. Neither of them knew what they liked about her, but there was something… And Sirius Black, he hadn't chosen anyone for a preteen crush yet. But there were some girls he liked. He never thought of himself as a very good looking, charming boy, so he never tried to pursue any girl. Besides, James was the vein one of the group.

Remus looked at his schedule for the year. Transfiguration and Charms with Ravenclaw, Potions with Hufflepuff, History of Magic and Defense against the Dark Arts with Slytherin. Just what he needed: the only classes where the teachers don't pay attention they have with Slytherin.

"Hey, look at the schedule. Why can't we have one class with Slytherin in stead of Hufflepuff? Sometimes I think that McGonagall is blind to the trouble Slytherin causes."

"Doesn't matter if she did," James said with a sigh, "Balic hates Gryffindor. He is constantly going out of his way to make us miserable." Professor Balic was the Potions teacher and head of Slytherin house.

"This is true." Remus sighed.

The next day was amazingly beautiful. The sun was shining and grass green. Most students wanted to eat lunch quickly and get outside to enjoy the weather, including Sirius and James. They, like everyone else, stuffed their faces as fast as they could so they could go outside.

Unfortunately for Remus, it was going to be a full moon, he was suffering from the regular "moon madness syndrome" like most werewolves do. This included quiziness, headaches, and unusual behavior. At the moment, he was suffering an unusually bad headache. The last thing he needed was to go outside in the sunlight.

"Remus? Are you coming?" James looked at his friend.

"Uh- no, no I'm just going to stay here." He buried his head in his hands, trying to cover his eyes.

"Are you ok? You look sick. Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing." James looked worried. This happened all the time, it's not normal; it can't be healthy to be this sick this much. He really hoped Remus was alright.

"No, I'm alright. Go ahead without me."

"You know, I think we should stay here, to be sure your ok. I haven't seen you like this in a while." Sirius looked at Remus closely, his hair was messy, he looked like his skin had a greenish tint to it. There were bags under his eyes and worst of all, he was slouching, Remus NEVER slouched. Remus slouching was like a muggle going to Hogwarts; it just wasn't done.

"No guys, go. I'm really ok, I just have a headache, that's all." Remus quickly looked at the other three, but covered his eyes just as fast from the pain of the light.

"Fine, but only if you go to the Hospital Wing. You really shouldn't be going around like this." James looked genially worried.

"Yes, I'll go. Just go outside like you wanted, don't sacrifice your lunch on my expense." Remus made a hand gesture telling them to go.

"I'll take you there. Common." Peter began to grab Remus' arm as if to guide him.

"NO! Go! I'll be fine, really!" Remus didn't feel comfortable with all the attention he was getting.

"But-" Sirius was stopped by James, who shook his head. Sirius thought he mouthed 'Don't push it' and gestured for them to go.

"All right then, we'll see you later." James guided Sirius away.

Remus found a statue of a Badger on the first floor and squeezed himself behind it. The dim light felt better for his eyes. Reguardless of his headache, his mind thought about the event that took place. Why were they so concerned about him? Was he getting too close to them? What if they found out? Then what? James and Sirius are smart, it was only a matter of time they would put the facts together and realize what he was. He knew what would happen then, it's happened before. He had friends that found out. The only thing his family could do was to move away. If his friends found out, then he would surely have to leave Hogwarts. Even though Dumbledore was kind, understanding, and unusually tolerant, he would have no choice but to expel him. Parents would find out, they would write to him, and no one would feel safe until he was gone.

Remus instantally thought of the time he was nine. His older brother, Rodger, was upset that he had to leave AGAIN; away from his friends, his girlfriend, and everything else. When they finally settled into their new house, Rodger went into his brother's room. "I hate you! Why did you have to get yourself bitten? Didn't you figure out by now you can't have friends? Once people find out what you are they're scared! Scared of YOU! You can never have friends like a normal person. Even mom and dad have said it! You'll never have a normal life, friends, or anything that we had before you were bitten! Now we'll never have any sort of life until you're gone, werewolf!"

Those words stayed with Remus for the rest of his life. Every time he thought of James, Sirius, or Peter, his brother's word rang in his head. 'We'll never have any sort of life until you're gone, werewolf!' Remus could never have any sort of life of friends, he knew that. And he made the mistake of becoming friends with the three boys. Over and over he told himself 'you shouldn't be friends with them, you came to Hogwarts to study magic, not to have friends, werewolf'

Peter, James and Sirius were outside under the shade of an oak tree not far from the entrance to the school. James couldn't stop thinking about Remus. He hated seeing his friend in pain like that. "Hey, why do you think Remus is sick all the time? It seems like every few weeks or so he becomes really ill."

"I don't know, maybe he has some sort of disease or something." Peter thought hard about what it could be.

"No, I don't think so. I remember reading something about that, in defense against the dark arts or something. Damn, what was it. It was last year, we were studying… different kinds of… human creatures! That probably wasn't the term he used but it was something like that. We were reading about people who are actually dangerous creatures." Sirius remembered Professor Flood telling them that sertan conditions in the earth effect the behavior of these people. Vampires, werewolves, and something called human phoenixes. Those were people who have phoenix qualities but are sensitive to things. Sirius never really under stood that. "He said that some creatures have monthly or weekly cycles were they act weird or something."

"You think Remus is a human creature?" James raised his eyebrows sarcastically then laughed, "Next you'll be telling me Peter can ride a broom."

Although Peter didn't like to be hearing this, he laughed along with James anyways.

"Common! It's always a possibility, it can't be ruled out!" Sirius said defensively.

"But wouldn't he act weird if he was one of those things?" Peter looked a Sirius. He wasn't sure weather to side with him or James. He already laughed with James, so he figured he had better stick with that.

"No, my Uncle Yorik is a werewolf. I stayed with him a little one summer. He acted completely normal until the full moon came around. That day he became sick and after the transformation he was weak and stuff for a few days. So you don't realize they're one of those until that little cycle thingy is complete." Sirius shrugged. His uncle Yorik was a werewolf, but his family hated him for that, which is why they hated his cousin, Andromeda.

"Fine, I'll let you look into that. But I think we have to figure out what's wrong with him and soon. I really don't like seeing him sick like that. Maybe if we find out what's wrong we could help him out or something." James sighed.

Later that night, around 7:30, Remus made his way to the Hospital Wing to see Madam Pomfrey. When he came to the school, she was brought in from St. Mungo's Hospital to help him with his transformations. She and Madam Franklyn, the head nurse at Hogwarts, were the only people in the school that had to help no less than 200 students at the school.

"Are you ready?" Madam Pomfrey had her arms crossed. He was late. He should NEVER be late.

"Yes Madam. I'm sorry I took so long, I just-"

"Doesn't matter. You're here now, that's all that counts. Now come on, the moon is almost completely full." She grabbed his arm and lead him to the statue of the first headmaster of Hogwarts, Geodic Gryffindor. With her wand, she tapped it three times and said _Candor_. It meant open in some language, Remus reckoned. The statue's back slid in and to the side, allowing the two to go though.

They went through a short tunnel; at the end was a door on the ceiling. Madam Pomfrey tapped her wand three times and again said _Candor _to open the door. They went to the Womping Willow which was planted the summer before last just for him. They went into the shrieking shack where Madam Pomfrey left him there. A charm was put on the Shack so when he transformed, Remus couldn't leave.

After she left, Remus did what he hated most; he had to take off his clothes. Transforming in to the wolf included growing drastically bigger, his clothes would rip if he didn't take them off before hand.

A window in the shack let the moonshine in, Remus thought it better if he stayed by the window to get the transformation done and over with. One cloud covered the moon that night allowing only streams of the moon to shine through. He felt his stomach turn over, feeling he would vomit. His head was pounding, like hammers hitting his brain over and over again. This was the worst feeling in the world and he felt as if it would never stop.

Finally, the cloud blew away and the full shine of the moon shone through. His feet grew, his head grew bigger, longer; his back began to hunch over and grow. He let out horrifying scream after horrifying scream, letting out the pain and frustration from what little of his human mind was left. Finally, his transformation was complete and the wolf took over. He ran around the house, banging against its fragile walls, trying to get out. He stopped at the top of a stair case and let out one long howl.

Sirius' head turned towards his window, what was that he just heard? Oh well, it was gone now. It was probably something from the Forbidden Forest. He was doing what James suggested: looking into the possibility of Remus being something other than human.

The first thing he looked at was werewolves. Earlier that day he went to the library and picked up a copy of _The Wizard's Guide to Dangerous Creatures. _Although Sirius didn't think of Remus as dangerous, he still thought it was worth checking out.

Moon Madness Syndrome? According to the book, werewolves 'often have symptoms related to the full moon pre and post-transformation.' Sirius instantly went to a window in the Gryffindor common room to look at the moon. Just what he thought, the moon was full. At this point, Sirius began preparing himself for the worst. What if Remus was a werewolf? How was that going to change anything? _Wait, calm your ass down. He's your FRIEND. His being a werewolf shouldn't have anything to do with us being friends. _Sirius stopped himself and thought, _I'll just watch him a few months. If there's a pattern, then I'll ask. If there isn't then there's nothing to worry about! Besides, he's probably NOT a werewolf! He can't be! Dumbledore wouldn't have let him come if he was!_ Sirius tried to reassure himself. It didn't help much.


	5. First Attack

Hey, this chappee was realy fun to write. although the emotions seem deep for 12 years olds, it seemed appropriate at the time. PLEASE! tell me what you think!

CHAPTER 5

It had been three weeks since Sirius Black had decided he was going to watch his friend, Remus Lupin, to confirm his suspicions of Remus' being a werewolf. At the moment, Sirius, Remus and their two friends, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter were in History of Magic with Professor Hollingsworth. The professor decided she didn't really like Sirius Black, (she made this decision after Sirius would basically refuse to pay attention in class) and was constantly trying to catch him in the act of not listening.

Apparently, the Slytherin second years found this absolutely hilarious. One Slytherin, Servious Snape, made it his mission to make Sirius, and his friends, miserable. History of Magic was the best time for the short, oily haired boy to cause havoc due to the professor's dislike of Black.

Servious Snape was, at the moment, throwing bewitched spit wads to hit the professor in the face. Naturally, Professor Hollingsworth automatically thought it is Sirius Black, she assigned him detention with her that night. From that moment on, Sirius decided he hated Servious Snape. James Potter agreed.

After class, Sirius and James decided to 'catch up' with Snape. "What was that for?" Sirius yelled. Because it was lunch, he could take all the time he needed to get angry with the Slytherin student.

Snape laughed, "The opportunity just presented itself. I couldn't resist!"

"Really?" Sirius said sarcastically. "You EVER do that again you'll really wish you didn't." he tried to look threatening.

"Besides, what did he do to you?" James looked slightly disgusted.

"Being a blood traitor is all he needs to do! And being friends with the worst of all blood traitors makes it worst!" Snape scoffed at James.

"Worst of them all? Who?" James really didn't know what Servious was talking about.

"Who?" Snape imitated James, "YOU! Everyone knows the Potter's are blood traitors!"

"I didn't know." James was truly surprised. He didn't even know he was a pure blood.

"That makes you ugly, _and_ stupid!" Servious Snape laughed (he obviously wasn't original)

James, out of fury (from Snape calling him ugly) thrust out his wand. Snape instantly flew up in the air, upside-down.

Seeing the Slytherin's surprise, Sirius had to laugh hysterically. He decided to follow his friend's example by making bubbles flow freely out of the boy's mouth.

By now a group of onlookers had crowded around the three boys, including Lilly Evans and her 'posy'. She and the other girls pushed through the small crowd and began yelling, "POTTER! BLACK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Both boys were caught off guard and lost their concentration causing Servious Snape to plummet to the ground. James saw who was coming and was intent on looking calm and collected. "Why so upset, Lilly?" he smiled.

"Don't you _Lilly_ me, Potter! I saw what you were doing to this poor boy! It's not right! I would have expected better of you!" Lilly crossed her arms and gave an obviously practiced, mind piercing stare. This was the part James hated about his encounters with Lilly: her eyes, staring at him. His mind instantaly went back to the first time she did this and even said 'I would have expected better of you' he hated this. Her expression softened a little and she asked in a disappointed, tired voice, "Why are you doing this?"

Sirius thought it best if he answered the question and nudged his friend before he could say anything. "The opportunity just presented itself, that's all." He turned and smirked at Snape. Especially from his tone of voice, Lilly Evans became more frustrated and angry.

"YOU STUPID GITS! Can't you see you hurt him? Look! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" she pointed furiously at Servious, who was rubbing his head and a small amount of blood trickled down his face. Lilly pushed past the two boys and knelt down to talk to the Slytherin. "Are you alright?" her voice changed from fury to a calm, sweet voice. "I'm so sorry for what they did. Their just immature gits, that's all. Do you want me to help you to the hospital wing?" she smiled at him kindly.

Snape, at first, was caught off guard by her kindness. His mind thought of the answer he should give her:

'No, that's alright, thank you any ways.'

Or

'Yes, please. I think I'm bleeding.'

But he finally decided on the answer he felt obligated to say: "Why would I want help from _you_? How DARE touch me? You have no right, filthy Gryffindor!"

Lilly looked at him, sad and disappointed. She really wanted to show him she was trying to be kind to him. _She_ even considered being rude and insensitive to him. Hell, she even thought of letting the other boys bully him so she could enjoy the show.

James became furious by this. He walked over to the two and kicked Servious Snape in the stomach. Lilly tried to stop him but James was so mad he didn't stop there. He grabbed Lilly's arm, taking care not to grab too hard, and pulled her from the ground, where she was just kneeling.

"James Potter! Stop it! You're hurting him! STOP!" Lilly gasped as the boy pushed Snape against the wall.

"Lilly, why are you still sticking up for him?" his foot held the Slytherin in place while he turned to talk to his fellow Gryffindor. "You tried to be kind, and gentle, and loving towards him and look at how he repays that!" James at first didn't understand why he was so angered by this, but after thinking about it for a couple of seconds, he came to the conclusion that he was raised to respect and react kindly to behavior like Lilly's, he was angered out of shock of a reaction otherwise of what he would expect.

Lilly herself was upset by Snape's reaction. Although she wanted to let James continue what he was doing, she had to stop it. "James," her voice quivered and weakened from all the emotion she was feeling, "please, stop." Her hand touched his arm. She really wanted to thank him for defending her, but she knew that wasn't reasonable.

James stopped, he could see the anger and sadness and fear in her eyes. He loostened his hold on Snape and whispered, 'alright'

Lilly smiled, she looked back at the crowd, who was shocked by the even that just took place. She knew she had to look angry with him, (she partly was) and did look angry. But part of her was happy that he acted the way he did. The crowd began to break up and when she reckoned that no one was watching any more (with the exception of Sirius) she mouthed a 'thank you' to him.

By her look, he could tell why she said this. Not only because he stopped, but also because he didn't stop right away. The situation in its entirety was complicated; but James understood most of it immediately.

Lilly grabbed her books and began waking away, fast. She tried so hard to hide her blush and smile. It would be horrible if anyone knew that she was excited by the event and even yearned for James Potter to look at her like he did just a few minuets ago. She desprately tried to give off the impression that she despised James and all he stood for. But secretly, she had an unusual attraction to him and his life style that she would have the whole time they weren't together (in a relationship, that is)

Every one but the three, original boys, and the other two Gryffindors (Remus and Peter) remained in the fifth floor corridor. Snape just arrived to his feet and began brushing himself off when James cuffed his neck with his large hands and pushed the short Slytherin against the stone wall. James' mouth was soon by his new enemy's ear and he was whispering furiously to him: "How **_dare_** you act like that towards her! If I ever catch you saying things like that again to her, I swear on Merlyn's grave I will make your life miserable from then on. You had better watch your back, if you don't, you had better believe that Sirius and I will be behind it, and you can only guess what we'll do."

The way James had said this to him, thoroughly terrified Servious Snape. From then on he really did watch his back, but that never stopped him from having a jinx or minor curse put upon him coming from the dreaded wands of Potter and Black.

"I'm a blood trator?" James asked lightly.

Sirius laughed, "I'll explain later."

They, Remus and Peter walked off to lunch.


	6. unusual detention

CHAPTER 6

Sirius Black and James Potter had created a habit of jinxing and cursing Servious Snape and even began to move on to other Slytherin students. Every time, to James misfortune, Lilly Evans was there either to stop it, or hit him for doing it in the first place.

Now, it was March. Sirius Black had been watching his friend, Remus Lupin. He had been suspicious of him for months now. Praying to Merlyn he had been wrong, Sirius was watching him to see if he had the symptoms of a werewolf. So far, he was right. Remus had been getting sick on the day and a few days after a full moon, EVERY MONTH. It now being March, he felt that he should inform his other friends, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, of what he had discovered.

But that was for a later time…

"Look." James pointed to a short, oily haired boy clutching his back pack.

He wore all black, and seemed to keep to himself a lot. The only time he actually associated with people was either when he was complaining to other Slytherins about the bothersome moodbloods and how someone should do something about them, OR when Potter and Black decided to torment him. At least then he got in a conversation, even if it was to insult one another.

Sirius smirked, "Do you really want to? We have a History Test today, we need to study." He turned to Remus and smiled as innocently as he could.

"Yes Sirius, you do want to study." Remus said sarcastically, his eyebrows were raised.

"Yeah, I'm kind of tense 'bout the test. BUT," James at first sounded as if he was going to actually study, "I think we need to relax a bit. Sirius, shall we?" a familiar look fell over James' face. Remus, unfortunately, knew what that look meant. James was encouraging Sirius to basically humiliate Servious Snape. The 'attacks' were getting worse with every one. Last time Snape ended up hanging by his ankles on a picture frame wearing bright pink makeup (Remus still had no idea how this was achieved) he could only guess what would happen this time.

James and Sirius both got up from the table in the Fifth Floor corridor they were sitting at. Walking over to the Slytherin, they both smiled widely: Lilly Evans was ill in the Hospital Wing today; she wouldn't be here to stop them from doing what they wished. And they DID make a point to emphasize this to Snape.

"Well, well, well," Sirius tried to look threatening, "it looks like Evans isn't here. You DO know what that means, Right Snape?" he smirked devilishly.

"No, what does that mean Black?" Snape glared at his rivals.

"THAT, my unlucky Slytherin, means that no one will be here to save you." James crossed his arms and smiled wildly.

"Sucks to be you…" Sirius said quickly, looking at the terrified Servious Snape.

The two Gryffindor boys whipped out their wands and both yelled out curse and jinx over and over. (Half of them were made up, but still worked)

Before one could count to 30, Snape was hanging by his feet (which appeared to be a favorite spell of Sirius) with gigantic, puss-filled bumps popping up freely on his face, and amazingly, his hair still stayed flat on his head.

"Just out of curiosity, do you EVER wash your hair?" James looked both curious and disgusted. He, being very conscious of people's looks, found it repulsive to see Servious' hair so oily.

"It's not good to was your hair every day." Servious said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Says who? Your mother?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Actually, yes." Snape said uneasily.

Sirius and James looked at each other and began laughing wildly.

"Stop it! STOP IT! Stop laughing at me! STOP!" Servious' face was red and full of frustration. He hated it when he was laughed at.

"Potter! Black!" a young woman's voice rang through the corridor. This voice belonged to, no other than, Professor Hollingsworth. "What do you think you're doing? Mr. Snape? Why would you participate in such activities like this? Obviously it went wrong."

"Bu-"

"No buts about it Mr. Snape, you and these two are to be in detention with me, tonight!" she looked annoyed. But inside, she felt pleased with herself for taking appropriate action. Oh how she hated Sirius Black and James Potter. Nowadays she was noticing the two have been being nuisances, especially towards Slytherin Students.

"That was productive." Remus rolled his eyes.

"But it was fun! How long 'd ya think Snape will stay that way?" James smiled.

"Maybe the rest of the day, but those pimples? James, that was genius! That probably won't heal completely till into next week!" Sirius began to laugh.

"Boys, that was cruel! There is no reason you should do that just when you see him!" Remus said, "You shouldn't even do that when he bothers you. Come on. I think Lilly Evans is right. You _are_ Gryffindors, you should behave like them."

"Damn, when Evans is gone you take her place, huh?" James seemed to dismiss the outburst.

"We should get going. That History test won't fail it's self." Peter said. He was now very comfortable with James, Remus and Sirius. He felt as if he could say almost anything to them. They still laughed at him sometimes, though.

"What did you think of the test?" James asked at dinner.

"I don't know, it wasn't as hard as I thought. But still, I think I didn't get a good grade." Sirius shrugged.

"Why? You said earlier that you knew the answers to all the questions." Remus said.

"Yes, I did. But that's not what I'm concerned with. I think that Professor Hollingsworth will purposely fail me. I hope that bitch gets fired!" Sirius said loudly.

"Not something you should be saying. Should you, Mr. Black?" a sly, devious voice entered Sirius' ears. He turned and saw Professor Balic, the potions teacher.

He was tall, probably not much over six foot, and this enabled him to _peer_ down at students. This tended to frighten them, a lot. His short, dark hair, black eyes, and bad teeth made him even more frightening to even the older students. (And probably some of the adults too) no one liked this man too much, not even Slytherins. But one could bet that EVERYONE listened to him.

"Professor Hollingsworth wanted me to remind you that you and Mr. Potter," Balic smiled widely at James, "have detention at this very moment."

"No, we have the right to eat first, don't we?" James loved to challenge authority.

"You appear to have eaten already. I suggest you go. You don't want to get detention again, do you?" Balic's voice was slow and deliberate, it allowed the object of his attention to become more intimate and attached to his words.

"Yes sir, we'll go now." Sirius grabbed James by the arm, not losing eye contact with the Potions Professor. They both ran to the fifth floor corridor as fast as they could.

Professor Balic smiled, showing his quite ugly, yellow, uneven teeth. He walked away saying "Enjoy your dinner!" to the remaining boys.

"That bitch made detention _during_ dinner? GOD! I hate her!" Sirius yelled to James while running up the steps of the fourth floor.

"Well, that's not very nice, Sirius!" James smiled, trying to keep the situation light.

They arrived at the Fifth floor corridor and ran into the hallway where they were met my Servious Snape, waiting by the History of Magic classroom door.

"I've been here for an hour. I don't think she's coming out." Servious said.

"Well, there's only one thing to do then!" James said brightly. He and Sirius motioned towards the door.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Snape said.

"If you were me, then you would do this, Snape." Sirius turned back to look at him. "So, if your coming in, then come, if you're a pussy, then don't!" Sirius had learned that word from his father, who called his mother that a lot when he was little.

"Fine!" Servious walked towards them, but kept his distance.

They opened the door and saw a horrifying and disturbing sight:

Bernard Filch, the Castle Caretaker on top of Professor Shrub, the herbology teacher, without clothes on having sex. Filch's body was dark and crusted with matted hair and yellow teeth. James felt as if he would vomit! _Get a moisturizer buddy!_ He thought.

Professor Shrub was a short, fat woman, not much to say there except the fact that she had a lot of hair on her body. (More than a woman should have!)

Snape shrieked with fear and disgust while the other two boys just stood there, amazed and also frightened. All three turned and shielded their eyes from the horror.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Filch screamed while struggling to get cloths on. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at the three. "Why are you here? You should be at dinner!

"Please sir!" Servious began to grovel at the caretaker's feet. Hs eyes grew red and snot began to come out of his long, hooked nose. "We came for detention with Professor Hollingsworth! Honest!"

"Detention?" Filch looked confused. "Professor Hollingsworth never has detention during dinner! You should know that by now, Potter, Black!"

"That's what we thought. But Balic said that we should have been there by now!" Sirius said defensively.

"Balic? That makes sense." Filch murmured. "Why are you still coverin' your eyes? We're decent now!"

"She's not." James pointed to Professor Shrub.

Shrub was still undressed on the desk. She was lying on her side facing the four male persons, exposing all. The rolls of fat on her body made it impossible for her to look attractive or seductive. But she didn't seem to know that.

"Good god Maxine! Put clothes on! There are children in the room!" Filch tried to find something to cover her up, but nothing was big enough.

"They're teen aged boys!" she said cheerfully, then her voice turned seductive (or, _she _thought it was seductive, that is.) "they can have some if they want…" she moved her body in such a way that made Snape turn around and vomit what little of anything that was in his stomach.

A few minuets later Professor Balic and Professor Hollingsworth walked through the hall to the History of Magic classroom, talking.

"You know," James finally spoke, "This is all way too convenient."

"Of course it is you stupid boy!" Filch said, "Balic set this up!"

"Oooooooh!" James said brightly.

Professor Hollingsworth gasped at the sight that lay before her: a naked Professor Shrub and Bernard Filch standing in front of the three boys who are supposed to be in detention with her.

"What is going on here?" Balic said with unusual calmness.

"We just came in and saw them." James pointed defensively at the two adults before them (filch and sprout)

"In my classroom?" Professor Hollingsworth was still quite shocked at what she was seeing. "What possessed you boys to come up here during dinner? And WHAT do you think you two were doing?"

Sirius wanted to answer that Balic told them to go up here, but the look that was given to him by the Potions Master made him say: "We figured that you'd like us to be here early, that's all."

Professor Hollingsworth shook her head. Then after a moment's silence, she said, "I assume professor Dumbledore would like to hear about this. Boys, go fetch him if you please."

The boys gladly ran to get the headmaster. When they were on the first floor, Sirius began to laugh. "James, you see the way Snape _groveled_ at Filch's feet?"

"Yeah! Dear Merlyn Snape! Don't you have ANY dignity at all? Maybe we should call you Snivilous instead of Servious or something!" James began to laugh along with his friend.

"Hey! I like that, James! Let's call him Snivilous from now on." Sirius laughed at the idea.

"Alright then. Snape, from now on your nickname is Snivilous!"

"Mr. Filch, I'm thoroughly surprised by your actions. And Professor Shrub, I definitely would have expected better of you. The only appropriate action is for me to relieve you of your duties as Professor and Caretaker. After this year, your positions will be held by someone else. I assume you'll be packing soon?" Headmaster Dumbledore looked at the two through his old, half moon spectacles. He didn't appear angry, sad, or even disgusted. He just seemed to be confused. (Or as confused as he could look through all his hair and wrinkles) "As for you three, I expect you not to say anything about the events you witnessed." He turned to the three second year students. "Now run along. It's time for you to be in bed."

They all gladly ran back to their house common rooms. On the way to the Gryffindor common room, though, Sirius said something that James never had expected: "Hey, I think I found out why Remus is sick all the time. Get Peter up and I'll tell you."

They arrived at Peter's bed only to find him hanging out of the side, snoring obnoxiously. "Didn't we put a charm on him to stop that last night?" Sirius said.

"Yes, but we also put one on him the week before. Maybe there's a potion Remus can make. This is really getting annoying. Anyways, Peter! Peter! Wake uuuuup!" James began waking Peter in a singing voice. After much prodding, the small boy began to wake up. "Come on, there's something Sirius has to tell us.

They finally revived Peter and the three walked down to the common room.

"So?" Peter said tiredly.

"Ok, I found out why Remus is sick all the time."

"Really? Why?"

"I think it's because he's a werewolf." Sirius blurted it out.

James began laughing, "What? A werewolf? Right! And I'm a pixy!"

"NO! I'm serious!"

"Yes I know you are. But you have to be kidding!"

"No! I'm not joking! I really think he is!" Sirius crossed his arms.

"How do you know?"

"I've been watching him for the past few months. Every couple days around the full moon, he's sick. It's called Moonshine Madness or something. They get sick around the full moon 'Cause of the effect it has on them. Look, it's the full moon tonight, did you notice Remus in his bed? I didn't think so. That's because he's transforming. I don't know where he goes or how he does it, but I know he's a werewolf!" Sirius looked at his friends in such a way that they understood that he was telling the truth.

James sat down on a couch, "Do you really think Dumbledore would let him go to the school if he was?"

"He 'probly found out a way to get around getting people bitten. Listen, I know it's true." Sirius sat next to James.

"But if he is a werewolf, and people found out, then-"

"We have to keep it to ourselves." Sirius interrupted James. He stood up again, watching James and Peter. Peter himself was leaning against a wall. Sirius walked towards him and put his hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort the little boy.

"But," Peter finally said, "if it is a werewolf, do you really think we should hang around it anymore. It could be dangerous!"

Instantly Sirius cuffed Peter's neck and slammed his head against the wall. "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT? REMUS IS OUR FRIEND! HE IS NOT AN _IT_, HE'S A REAL PERSON! HIS BEING A WEREWOLF SHOULDN'T CHANGE ANYTHING! IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT HE'S DANGEROUS. THEN **YOU** DON'T DESERVE TO BE **HIS** FRIEND!" Sirius began yelling. Peter was whimpering, holding on to Sirius' hand, trying to loosen his grip on his neck.

James sprung up from his seat and ran to the boys. Even after much struggle, he was not able to pry off the furious Sirius. He was forced to take out the little rock from his pocked at throw it at Sirius. The sharp edges cut Sirius' head and distracted him enough for James to push him against the wall, away from Peter, he began talking to him to calm him down.

Sirius made many attempts to jump on Peter, amazingly, every time, James held him down. "Come on Sirius, you don't want to hurt him. He doesn't know what he's saying." James said in a quiet voice in his friend's ear.

"HE DESERVES IT! HE SHOULD DIE!" Sirius was so angry that tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"Calm down! Please! Imagine what would happen to you if you hurt him! You'd probably be expelled! You don't want that! You NEED to be here. For me! For Remus!" James finally got through to Sirius, who instantly stopped struggling and fell to the floor.

Peter was terrified but tried to walk to Sirius to apologize but James turned to him and said in a voice so angry and frustrated that it alone scared Peter off: "Don't come near him! Just go! GO!"

Peter ran back to his bedroom.

"You ok?" James asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. God, why were we even friends with that little rat?" Sirius wiped away the tears on his face.

"I don't know, man. But what do you think we should do about Remus?" James sat next to Sirius on the floor.

"I think we should let him know that we know. Tell him it's ok. Damn, I wonder what it's like to be a… werewolf." Sirius said.

"Tomorrow's Saturday, we can wake up early and see him First thing." James said, "Oh, and by the say, sorry for throwing my rock at you."

Sirius smiled and wiped away the blood that was flowing down from under is hair.


	7. its called: animagi

CHAPTER 7

"Remus? We have to talk to you." Sirius looked at his friend, nervous. It was the next day; James Potter and Sirius Black were going to tell their friend that they knew his secret. They and Remus Lupin were in the fourth floor corridor where they were the only people around. The fourth floor corridor was always vacant; with the exception of students trying to get to their classes. It wasn't a spot where people were much which allowed the three some privacy.

"Sure, what's going on?" Remus asked, completely clueless to what bombshell was about to be dropped on him.

"We know." James forced out. He felt extremely uneasy about telling his friend this. Would it change their relationship? Would Remus be expelled if other people knew? Oh, James could only guess what could happen.

"Know what?" Remus was trying not to sound obvious.

The thought of doubt began to grow in Sirius' mind. He could always be wrong.

"That you're a… a…" James couldn't bear to say the words.

"Werewolf." Sirius finished for him.

Remus' eyes widened. His worst fears had been realized: someone found out. Now he was sure that he would be a social outcast. This terrified him: no one would want to be his friend. But then again, no one was really his friend before this; that scared him even more. His friends knowing his secret would definitely lead to them leaving him. Now he had experienced the sensation of closeness with other people like he had experienced with James, Sirius, and Peter. He finally was able to utter the words, "I guess I'll be packing, then."

James looked at him, "What are you talking about?" although he figured he would get this reaction, James was still surprised to hear the words that followed his.

"Well, now that you know, it's not like anyone would want to be friends with me. I'm the dangerous werewolf, remember? I'm sure half the school knows by now and in a few days parents will be sending letters to Dumbledore and he'll have no choice but to expel me." Remus looked down at the ground.

"No, we're the only ones that know. And I can't believe you'd think we'd tell people about this. Who do you think we are, shallow, vein teenagers who can't see that us knowing about this would made you dangerous?" Sirius' eyes widened in such a way that the words 'Duh' instantly came to Remus' mind and made him feel at ease.

"Actually, the part about being shallow and vein applies to James, remember?" Remus smiled but then retracted. Why would he say that? He was digging a hole deeper than the one he was already in by saying that.

But to Remus' surprise, Sirius and James laughed at this. "True, true." Said Sirius.

"But still, we wouldn't say anything. You know us better than that, Remus!" James smiled.

This instantly made Remus feel better, but he was cautious about letting this feeling last. He walked over to a nearby bench and sat down.

"From what we read," James sat down next to Remus, he herd Sirius cough loudly. "From what _Sirius_ read that the transformations aren't so pleasant. Just out of curiosity, what's that like? All night I've been thinking about that."

Remus looked down, "Excruciating. You feel your bones grow right under your skin, your spine curves, your skull is pushed out into an unnatural shape-" Remus paused, he was shaking.

"Its ok, you don't have to say anymore." James put his hand on his friend's back. "But there has to be some way we can help you make this easier." James looked at his friend longingly. There has to be something he could do.

"No, I don't think so. But, anyways, where's Peter?" Remus looked at Sirius, then James. "What? What happened?"

"He really said that?" Remus wasn't too surprised but he was still hurt.

Sirius was now crossing his arms and leaning against a nearby wall. "Does it really surprise you?" he raised his eyebrows and laughed by a quick exhale though his nose; which he did often.

"I guess. But, I think we should give him a break." Remus suggested.

"Why? Why would we give that ignorant bastard another chance?" Sirius moved his eyebrows in such a way that he really didn't have to say anything.

"Because," James looked back at Sirius, "he is peter. Peter's like that, we all know it. Come now, Sirius, did you really expect Peter to act any different?"

Sirius looked down, he finally said slowly, "Yeah, you're right." But he added in a self justifiable voice, "But he still had no right to say that!"

"I know, I know, but we really can't expect too much out of peter." James threw up his hands in defense which turned to a shrug.

"He's really going to get himself into trouble someday being like that." Sirius relaxed, leaning against the wall.

"Yes, but it's not fair for us to just blow him off." Remus said.

Sirius was surprised by Remus, but after a few second's thought, he finally said with a sigh, "Yeah, I know."

"Really? Oh Remus! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! You're such a forgiving person and…" Peter went on thanking Remus and complimenting him repeatedly while James and Sirius watched in disgust from afar.

"Can you believe what you're seeing?" Sirius scoffed.

"Well," James raised his eyebrows and turned to his friend, "if it were any normal person, no; but it _is_ Peter we're talking about here. So, yes, it's believable."

Sirius smiled and watched James get up from leaning against the wall. They both were leaning against the far wall in a nook in the Gryffindor common room. James had to adjust his head many times for it was resting on a wooden picture frame and was getting uncomfortable. "Well, time to end the groveling. C'mon, Sirius."

Sirius followed in a mockingly heavy, tired fashion; but he smiled.

James turned over on his side to look at the clock beside his bed. _3:00 AM, I'll never get any sleep. _He thought. He again turned to his back and thought.

_There has to be something we can do about Remus! WAIT, why is this bothering me? _

_I need to close that ink bottle sometime soon, It'll dry up. I'll do it tomorrow. Yeah, but I know myself, I'll just forget then it'll dry up. Oh well, I need to buy those charmed kind that don't dry up._

_Did I do my history homework? _

_Oh! I remember that time that Sirius… that reminds me of the time Adam and I…_

James' mind wandered like this for another half hour or so until it settled on his parents and the time when he was four years of age. He vividly remembered hiding behind that ugly yellow, dragon leather couch that was suppose to be white but over time turned to a yellow-kaki color which he always found disgusting. But he wasn't thinking about the couch at this moment.

"_Marie, there has to be something we can do!"_

"_No, Floyd, he brought this upon himself. It's is fault and there is no reason we should help him! If he didn't go to that ally at that time, none of this would have happened."_

"_It may be his fault but we NEED to help him, no one else will!"_

"_FLOYD! Please, stop yelling and sit down, you'll wake the boys."_

"_I'm sorry, honey. But we should do something."_

"_Dear, the neighborhood is scared of him, I'm scared of him and you should be too. I don't want you to get involved with him; for our children's sake."_

"_I won't let our boys get hurt. And yes, I am frightened of him. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't help him. Look."_

"_What are you doing?"_

"_Wait, where are you? AH! Here you are! Ok, vampires, page one hundred and twenty four. Alright, Marie. Look at this, 'Vampires come in different states of mind, the two most common is active and reactive. An active state of mind occurs when the newly formed vampire takes the traditional, evil state that is more often than not the state of mind of the vampire that produced the original bite._

'_Reacive state of mind occurs when the newly formed vampire keeps the personality it formally had.'_

_See, he has a reactive state of mind. He is still the same person and doesn't know why he's acting the way he is. There has to be something we can do for him. I'll look into it, alright?"_

That conversation is how James' opinion of his mother and father formed. While growing up, he wanted to be just like his father: someone who is reliable, responsible, caring, and overall someone who goes out of his way to help people. And this was exactly what James' was going to do for Remus. there had to be some way he could make his time as the wolf easier. So he got out of bed towards the chest at the foot of his bed, looked around for a while thinking he needed to sort out what was in there, and finally, found what he was looking for: _Everything you wanted to know about monsters but couldn't find in any book. _His defense against the dark arts teacher wanted to be funny, James reconed.

_Werewolves, page five-hundred and forty-six. Ah, perfect!_

"I got it." James dropped his Defense against the Dark Arts text book in front of Remus, Peter and Sirius, who were eating breakfast.

"Got what?" Sirius said looking up with a spoon in his mouth.

"I got it!" James' voce dropped to a whisper. "I found out how we can help Remus while he is a wolf!"

Remus was forced to lean in so he could hear James speak. But once he heard this, he had to yell, "You did what?" this made the people around him stop and stare at the four boys.

"Sorry, carry on with your breakkist!" Sirius said.

Once people turned away, James began to explain. "I read in a book that the time as a werewolf is painful and not too pleasant over all. But I found in this book that the werewolf reacts to animals like they would react towards each other. Meaning they can get along. So if we can't be with you as humans, then we'll just be with you as animals!"

"You mean become an animagus?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Exactly!" James said.

"You can't! you'd not only be breaking about twenty or so school rules, but be breaking about five ministry laws! You're not allowed to even begin training for that until you're and over aged wizard, and you have to do it with a trained professional, AND you have to register! But you can't register because you can train because you're and under aged wizard!" Remus spoke very fast and had to catch his breath.

"So, once we become animaguses, we can be with you when you transform!" Sirius began to get excited about the idea.

"You mean: once you become _animagi_." Remus said.

"So you want us to! Great!" James smiled widely.

Remus decided that there was no arguing with him. It would happen regardless of his opinion. "you know, training will take a year if you do it right, and if you don't it could take longer!"

"So what? We have five and a half years before we graduate, we can do it before then!" Sirius said.

"So it settled then? We'll become animagi!"


	8. Girls! Girls! Girls!

Sorry it took soooooooo long for this update, I've been so buisy for unusual reasons and, of course, the Half Blood Prince came out…

To SilverWolf-Ryuki, thanks for the encouraging reviews! I realize it goes fast, but once we get to year 4 it will slow down considerably and I'll try to be clearer about the time setting.

CHAPTER 8

"EEEW! That actually happened? I thought that was just a rumor!" Peter couldn't believe his ears when James recanted the night he and Sirius found the former professor shrub and filch in professor Hollingsworth's room.

"Nope, no rumor. It actually happened! Three years ago. " James smirked.

THIRD YEAR

"Hey Peter?" a thirteen year old James smiled widely at the mousy boy.

Peter knew what would come next. "Yes, James?"

"It's almost 1:00 in the Mooooooornningggggg!" James said in a sarcastic, singing voice. Peter was right. "I'm sure your mommy wouldn't want you to be up this late. You should go to bed."

Peter looked at his watch, "Oh my goodness! It IS almost 1:00! Oh, and I was going to send mother a letter tonight asking for more syrup for my congestion! Foo! I'll have to do it first thing tomorrow. G'night guys! Mother really doesn't like me being up this late."

James raised his eyebrows and looked at Sirius as Peter rushed his plump body up the staircase in the Gryffindor common room.

"Dear Merlyn, I hate him." James turned to his friends bitterly.

"Well, this is new. Since when did you decide you hated him? Why?" Remus asked.

James looked at Remus with a look of pondering. After a few seconds he answered: "Well, you know in divination class Professor Futuro was telling us about Vibrations?" James looked at the table now. He was trying to remember what happened in class. He remembered the professor walking around the class room explaining that vibrations…

"_, or Vibes, as they are now called, is moral and spiritual energy that every one gives off It is an energy that no one can hide, it gives off only the pure essence of one's character... Some have a gift of feeling them more than others, but every one has felt them. _

'_Jessica, now you know what a Vibration is, explain a Vibration you have ever received from someone, now don't think too hard, if you have truly felt a strong vibration, the experience should stick out to you…_

' _No? Well then, Rachael, what about you?"_

_James looked around his divination class. He had only been in his third year elective class for two months, but so far, he liked the teacher. He was different from the other teachers he had. So far, his third year has been the best. But then again, he knew himself well enough to know he was jumping to conclusions. _

_James watched Sirius stare at the girl the professor called on. Although he wouldn't admit it yet, Sirius had his FIRST crush on a girl, James knew it._

"_Uh, well, if that's what a vibration is, I feel them all the time. I don't mean to brag, but I feel it a lot. I thought it was normal."_

_Professor Futuro lit up, "Yes! Yes it is normal, but if you really feel them all the time like you say you do, then you might have psychic abilities! I'm excited to see what you have to say. Go on! Go on! Tell us one vibration that stuck in your mind."_

_Rachael blushed at the compliment, then she looked around, "alright, I can tell you because there aren't any Slytherin's here." _

_A small giggle came over some members of the class. "Go on, whom? I promise you this will not leave the classroom." The professor smiled._

"_Ok, it was Servious Snape." Rachael said. She seemed to feel uncomfortable with talking about a student._

"_Yes, he does give off strong vibrations."_

"_No, no, it was different. I first felt that he just wasn't nice. But then I bumped into him recently and it was different. I don't know, maybe it was from the contact, but he didn't seem like he first did. He seemed, uh… nice, ok, well maybe not nice, but he didn't seem mean or like a Slytherin. I guess he seemed like there was something more. It didn't seem like he fit the Slytherin stereotype." Rachael finished. She obviously didn't like talking in front of people._

"_Good! Very Good! I want to see you after class. Alright, everyone, for homework, I just want you to pay attention to people and their vibrations, find at least ten different people and list them and the vibrations you received from them. Due Thursday!"_

"Yes," Remus said. "I didn't think it was very appropriate of him to allow a student talk about another student. But anyways, what?"

James leaned in close, "I thought about it and realized I got a vibration from Peter." James' eyes squinted and his brow crumpled in such a way that he looked serious and thoughtful. "I've always got a vibration off of him. It is kind of weird. He seems… uh…"

"Slimy?" Sirius added in.

"Yes! Slimy. And.."

"Deceitful?"

"Yeah, you feel it too?" James looked at Sirius who was leaning back in his chair so it was on one leg.

"Yup."

"But anyways, I just don't like him. He seems like the kind of person-"

"The kinds of person you know you shouldn't be around because you know something bad will some of it." Sirius said quickly.

"Yeah," James blinked and turned to Sirius, "Will you quit that? Damn! Let me finish a sentence!"

"Sorry." Sirius smiled.

"Anyways, I've always felt like there's something wrong about him. I don't know," James slumped in his chair, "maybe it's just me."

"No, it's not," Remus placed his had on the table and sighed. "I feel it too. But maybe we're wrong. Maybe he's a good person, I think we'll just have to wait and see."

"I know."

"Soooooo!" James smiled widely at Sirius. Remus had gone to bed and all that was left was an energetic James and unusually quiet Sirius.

"So, what?" Sirius looked at James.

"Where did you disappear off to after Divination today?" James leaned in and nudged his friend suggestively "I herd some of the girls talking about how _cute_ you are!"

"Liar." Sirius glared at James. He really didn't believe James, but he knew that deep ion his mind he wanted it to be true, and was praying James was right.

And the young James Potter was right. Over the course of the summer vacation, Sirius Black had undergone a transformation from an awkward, pimply, not-quite-teenager; into a tall, undeniably handsome, thirteen year old. His acne had disappeared, hair grew out, he himself grew another three or four inches; and most importantly, his facial features changed dramatically. Finally, his nose fit his face, lips an adequate size and eyes proportionate. And even though his left ear still pointed unusually, his face was undoubtedly his most noticed feature.

"Alright James, tell me! What did they say?" Regardless of the fact Sirius was interested, he still managed to obtain a sleek sarcastic ness which would one day soon, be his most annoying trait that somehow would drive women mad.

James couldn't resist a chance to bribe his way to the information he wanted, so he paused, smirked, and finally said: "I'll tell you once you tell me what you did during lunch today."

Sirius should have suspected this to happen, "No." He tried to resist the urge to know what those girls said. He even surprised himself at how much this little fact meant to him. He finally sighed after staring at James for a matter of minuets; he knew James wouldn't budge. "Fine…"

_Sirius Black had come down the staircase leading to the divination classroom. He had decided long before this moment what he would try to do next. _

_Over the course of the year so far, he began to notice that cute Irish girl with the hazel eyes. According to Remus her name was Rachael Grieving and had, to his surprise, been in the same house and same year as he had been; the entire time he had been at Hogwarts!_

_He himself had never noticed her until this year; but at this point it didn't matter, she had never made an effort to contact him at all anyways. Why he had noticed her now was a mystery to him, but she and her friend Vivian Davidson had any of the third year Gryffindor boys talking. Just the other day he, John Setting, Tristan McCabe, and Luke Anderson had been talking about them._

_Sirius' thoughts were interrupted by a hard sounding tap through the door leading to the staircase. He reckoned he knew who it was and realized it was, indeed, Rachael Grieving._

_**Alright, this is it, calm! Calm!** Sirius thought to himself. He looked upon her surprised face and desperately wanted to say something but all he could manage was a smile._

"_Oh, Hello. Um, Sirius Black, right?" Rachael pointed at him in a friendly manner and gave him a warm smile._

_Sirius realized the appropriate thing to do was to answer back, he wanted to say something smooth, or humorous, but again, all he could manage was a mediocre, "Yup, that's me!"_

"_Well, Sirius Black, What are you doing here?" Rachael cocked her head to the side._

_Sirius didn't want her to know he was actually waiting for her, so he did the next thing he could think of, lie. "I was… reading."_

"_Reading? You don't really sound like the person who would want read voluntarily. I really wouldn't be surprised if you were setting up timed dung bombs or something." Rachael sent Sirius a smile and tone of voice that she could tailor at will to give the desired effect on whomever she wants. _

_Sirius normally would have been insulted by her comment, being who he is, but her tone and look downplayed the possible insult. "Well, my main purpose of the day isn't always pulling pranks on people… it is most of the time," he smirked, "but not all the time." **Good job! That should warm her up to you!** Sirius congratulated himself when he realized Rachael found this humorous. "So, just out of curiosity, what were you doing up there?"_

_Rachael's smile turned to a blush, "well, Professor Futuro wanted me to stay after so he could talk to me about 'developing my psychic abilities'" she said the last bit with a slight sarcasm. _

"_Really?" Sirius was, at the moment, developing a skill that would impress women for the rest of his days: looking and sounding interested. _

"_Yeah, he said he sensed psychic abilities in me or something like that. So he wants to see me after classes three times a week to get extra training. It takes a lot of time though, but he said it's worth it. If I keep it up, I could be a very good psychic by the time I graduate, so he says." Rachael looked down at the stone floor._

"_You don't sound so sure." Sirius tried to make eye contact with her in a down and around motion._

_Rachael looked in his eyes again, "I'm not."_

"_Why?" Sirius said calmly, "The professor said that you would have to be having those psychic moments, or what ever they're called, your entire life. I just seems odd that you wouldn't be sure about this of all things."_

_Rachael smiled, "Yeah, I guess it would seem odd. But I've never thought of whatever it is I feel to be psychic moments, as you called them."_

_Sirius sat down on a nearby bench, Rachael followed. Sirius finally asked, "Does anyone else in your family have this…,uh,…?"_

_Rachael laughed, "Oh, no, of course not. Well, that is as far as they have told me." She turned her head to stare at the floor, smiling fondly, "I never thought of my brothers or father to have any psychic ablates. Huh, if they knew about this, they would probably try to make me predict the store's future prophet or something."_

"_You haven't told them?" Sirius watched Rachael shake her head. He cocked his head to the left and asked, "What store?"_

_Rachael smiled, "I'm surprised you don't know, my parents own Grieving's Magical Animal Shop."_

"_OH!" Sirius remembered the name, "of course, your name is Grieving, the store name is Grieving, I got it. I remember once I wanted to buy an owl there."_

"_Why didn't you? It's not like you couldn't afford it." Rachel was intrigued._

"_I couldn't, my mother wouldn't let me. She said 'decent wizards don't buy things from the grieving family' Dear Merlyn my mother's stupid. My father doesn't think ill of you though, he said he use to work with, and I think he would be your brother, at the Ministry of Magic. He told me the man was always kind to him, no matter what my father said to him." Sirius realized Rachael felt insulted._

"_I never knew the Blacks thought of us like that. But it makes sense, I think." Rachael's voice changed, her voice not took on the tone of a cold, monotones manner._

"_I'm sorry," Sirius said quickly, "I never realized you didn't know. I didn't realize you would be insulted. I'm sorry." He said again._

_Rachael smiled warmly again, but it didn't seem real, it seemed to be painted over the cold feeling Sirius felt before. "It's not your fault. You didn't know. It's alright, besides, who doesn't the black family have a grudge against?"_

_Sirius snorted, "Yeah, I know. My mother has this tapestry in her study-thing. It has all our relatives on it and everything, its actually pretty cool if you don't think of who's on it. But anyways, every family member she thinks is a traitor, she burns off the tapestry, and by now half have been burned off! And she keeps a list of what families are 'un-pure' or 'blood traitors'; the list is pages long!"_

"_You're kidding!" Rachael didn't believe him, by now her face warmed up again and she seemed to be normal._

"_Nope!" Sirius laughed, "A Raging fat woman, that's my mom! And my family doesn't have any lack of those!"_

_Rachael and Sirius laughed for a few minuets, making comments and telling stories about their families. When finally Rachael stopped and smiled at Sirius, "You know, you're not like any black I've ever met. I mean, no offense, but every one I knew expected you to be in Slytherin like your family. But you're so different, why?"_

_Sirius stopped laughing also, he blushed at the comment just given to him, and he thought, why? After a moment of silence he finally said, "I think it's because I always watched my mother and how she treated people. I never liked it, maybe it's because I thought she was a maniac, or maybe I'm just naturally not like them." He shrugged. _

_And just as Rachael began to say something, the sound signifying the end of lunch sounded._

"_What's your other elective class?" Rachael asked._

_Oh what fun Sirius had talking to her, he would love to do it again, "Care of Magical Creatures, you?"_

_Rachael lit up, her incredible hazel eyes glowing with excitement, Sirius noted how much he would love seeing that look. "Me too! My Father made me take it. So I guess I'll see you there!"_

_Sirius smiled, "I guess I'll see you there also. I'll walk down with you if you want."_

"_Actually, I have to get my book first. But it will only take a few minuets. We have what? Twenty, thirty minuets before class? I'll meet you in the great hall." Rachael said as she gathered her books._

"_Alright. See you then!" Sirius said happily as they departed._

"Okay! I told you! Are you happy?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.

James smiled stupidly at him, "Oh yeah! Damn, I wish Lilly would be so willing to talk to me like that."

"She won't because she hates you." Sirius said with a blunt kindness.

"She may change her mind, only time will tell my friend! Only time will tell!" James hoped.

"Yeah, and I'll be head boy." Sirius said sarcastically, "Now tell me what you heard!"

"Ok, ok, keep your pants on. I'll tell you."

_James walked from his dormitory with his care of magical creatures book in hand only to hear girls giggling under the staircase._

"_You didn't! Rachael! Oooh! Tell me! Tell me! What is he like?"_

"_Well,"_

"_Come now! Tell tell!_

"_Ok, he's a lot sweeter than you'd think. That's the main thing. And he's funny! Ooh! I had fun with him at lunch!"_

"_I have fun just looking at him! He is sooooo good looking now. Unlike last year."_

"_And with a name like that! Wow, he's the kind of man I'd want!"_

"_Sirius Black… dreamy!"_

"_Ladies, ladies, please! Its not like that, I don't like him for his looks or anything."_

"_So you like him?"_

"_I never said that!"_

"_Yes you did!"_

"_Ok, yeah, I like him a lot. And YES he is fabulous looking."_

"_I can't believe you're all goggling over such a jerk!"_

"_Lilly! You have never talked to him. He's not like that!"_

"_He's just as bad as his friend, James."_

"_Yes Lilly, we know you hate him. Hunny, get over yourself."_

"_Fine, but I still think you shouldn't judge him by his looks."_

"_Yeah, because I didn't think he'd be that sweet!" _

"_You two would make a good couple."_

"_You think?"_

"_Maybe not Viv. It might look like a good look crash."_

"_What's that?"_

"_It's when two people who are too good looking go out and it looks weird."_

"_Me? Too good looking? Merlyn! What are you talking about! My eyes are too wide apart and I have a pointy nose, AND I'm a fat cow!"_

"_What ever Rach."_

"_But still, he's sooooo good looking!"_

"I don't believe you!" Sirius said.

James held up his right hand, "I kid you not! I swear! It happened!"

"Wow,"

"I know, Lilly hates me!"

"Shut up. They think I'm good looking, huh?" Sirius' eyes began to wander in fascination.

"Yeah, now let's go to bed before our eyes fall out. I'm tired!" James headed up stairs.

Sirius remained a while longer, exploring the possibilities of him POSSIBLY going out with Rachael. Once he got to know her better, he would. Definitely. And did anyone see the way she caught that escaped furry thing in Care of Magical Creatures? That was amazing! She just pounced on it!

He let his mind wander being caught up in fascination of this cute Irish girl with the hazel eyes.


End file.
